This invention relates generally to a firearm shooting rest, and more particularly to a shooting rest that reduces the amount of recoil energy transmitted to a shooter.
The firearms shooting sports are often associated with the sometimes painful recoil that results from shooting the firearm. Recoil from large caliber firearms can cause a shooter to flinch, or jerk the firearm trigger, in anticipation of the shock to the shooter's upper body. Flinching, or jerking the trigger, in anticipation of recoil is a common negative factor in a shooter's accuracy. Recoil can be described as the equal and opposite reaction to the momentum of an ammunition cartridge's projectile (bullet) and gunpowder charge upon firing of the cartridge. This momentum is imparted to the firearm, causing it to travel in the opposite direction of the fired bullet. The resulting energy, or recoil energy, of the firearm can be calculated using the following equation derived from the Law of Conservation of Momentum:
      Recoil    ⁢                  ⁢    Energy    ⁢                  ⁢          (              ft        ⁢                  -                ⁢        lbs            )        =                                          (                                          Bullet                ⁢                                                                  ⁢                Weight                ×                Bullet                ⁢                                                                  ⁢                Velocity                            +                                                                                                                        4700                  ×                  Gunpowder                  ⁢                                                                          ⁢                  Weight                                )                            ^              2                        )                                      64.348      ×      Firearm      ⁢                          ⁢      Weight      Where 4700 is the velocity of the gases generated by the burning gunpowder and 64.348 is a correction factor for the acceleration of gravity.
As can be seen by the above equation, increasing the Firearm Weight will result in a decreased Recoil Energy. As is common to the art of firearms manufacture, large caliber, heavy recoiling firearms are designed to be heavier in weight than small caliber, low recoiling firearms for precisely this reason. The additional weight has a dampening effect on the recoil felt by the shooter.
To test the accuracy of a firearm a shooter will commonly shoot with the firearm placed atop a shooting rest, which in turn is placed atop a bench. The shooter then fires the firearm from a sitting position behind the bench. This type of arrangement eliminates shooting errors caused by the inability of the human body to hold a firearm perfectly steady and provides the steadiest, most accurate method of supporting a firearm while shooting. Shooting from the bench has the drawback of subjecting the shooter to a higher degree of “effective recoil.” Actual recoil energy of the firearm does not increase by shooting from the bench, but more of the recoil energy is transferred to the shooter in a sitting position than in a standing position. The standing position allows the entirety of the shooter's body to flex and partially absorb the recoil energy. In the sitting position only the torso (shoulder to waist) of the shooter is available to flex and absorb the recoil. Because of the higher “effective recoil” when firing from a sitting position, shooting a large caliber, heavy recoiling firearm from a bench can create an unpleasant experience when firing more than a few rounds. It is common for a shooter to fire upwards of twenty rounds when zeroing, or sighting-in, especially in the case of rifles and shotguns using telescopic sights.
From this point forward the discussion of firearms will pertain specifically to long arms (e.g., rifles and shotguns) although many of the principles discussed could be applied to other types of firearms.
This invention relates to a method of reducing recoil experienced by the shooter without requiring modification to the firearm. Several devices are currently available that serve as a means of supporting a firearm on a bench while reducing recoil. These recoil-reducing shooting rests differ from traditional shooting rests in that the traditional rests do nothing to absorb recoil. A traditional shooting rest supports and steadies the firearm, but does not restrain it. A recoil-reducing shooting rest may employ any of a multitude of methods to dampen, or absorb the recoil energy. Typically these devices consist of a base unit with a moveable carriage, with the firearm resting on and affixed to the carriage. The carriage is moveably attached to the base to allow linear motion relative to the base along a path parallel to the direction of firearm recoil. Springs, pneumatic cylinders, elastic bands or other methods with which to slow, or dampen, the force and energy of the recoiling firearm, restrain the carriage, and the firearm affixed to the carriage, from free travel relative to the base. Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,811,720, incorporated by reference herein for all purposes, for additional background information relating to existing recoil-reducing shooting rests.
The present invention reduces recoil by adding weight to the shooting rest. The shooting rest is a rigid structure. Therefore, when the firearm is fired, the firearm and shooting rest can be considered as a single unit subjected to the firearm's recoil energy. Mathematically, the weight of the shooting rest can be added to the weight of the firearm to yield a total Firearm Weight as used in the Recoil Energy equation. Since total Firearm Weight is inversely proportional to recoil energy, adding more weight to the shooting rest results in a corresponding reduction in recoil energy. The recoil-reducing shooting rest of the present invention is designed to accept 25 lb. bags of lead shot to increase the weight of the unit. Lead shot was selected for its availability to the typical shooter, uniformity of packaging and ease of portability.